A taxonomic foundation for evidence-based research on employee performance management

This study presents a taxonomic foundation for research on employee performance management practices based on a comprehensive review of the literature (198 articles and book chapters). The taxonomy consists of 50 practices organized within seven topic categories, including an evaluation of the amount of research evidence supporting each practice. This taxonomic foundation facilitates the aggregation, integration, interpretation, and explanation of performance management research based on a role-theoretic perspective derived from the behavioural approach to strategic human resource management. The proposed direct-linkage path model shows how this taxonomic foundation ties performance management practices to behaviours and results. We build on this Practice – Behaviour – Results (PBR) critical path model with moderators and mediators based on cognitive and social factors identified in the extensive previous research. This PBR model provides a foundation for orderly and structured growth for future research that will enhance the connection between research and improved organizational practices in performance management, as well as a guide to best practices in performance management.     

Failing safely: Increasing theology and religious studies students’ resilience and academic confidence via risk‐taking in formative assessment

Students increasingly appear anxious, risk‐averse, and worried about getting things “wrong.” They may appear to lack intellectual curiosity, and be unwilling to engage in independent study. This essay explores how teaching and assessment in theology and religious studies might help students learn to take intellectual risks, and increase their resilience. One approach is to encourage students to experiment and “fail safely,” to increase their confidence that they understand what is expected of them, and to help them begin to understand learning as more broadly formational, not always directed toward a grade. I suggest three strategies: more formative assessment; a stronger narrative about the purpose of formative assessment; and an appeal to values, virtue, and the cultivation of character. Via these approaches, students might be encouraged to understand assessment in less utilitarian terms and increase their resilience for a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, prepared both critically and dispositionally to thrive and contribute positively to society.     

Bildung as an essential disposition in becoming a reflective practitioner: practical application of philosophical hermeneutics to second language teacher education

For a few decades, reflective practice has been employed in second language teacher education (SLTE) as ‘a means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development’. Dewey, who initiated the concept of reflective thinking in teacher education, emphasized one’s attitudes toward engagement in reflective process. One such disposition is open-mindedness, ‘a willingness to entertain different perspectives… and acknowledgement of the limitations of one’s own perspectives’. Regarding this concept of open-mindedness, Gadamer, who established philosophical hermeneutics, provided profound insights by using the German word Bildung, which is often translated as education, culture, or self-cultivation. Through this concept, Gadamer emphasized not only one’s open and introspective disposition toward new experience but also one’s mode of being. This paper explores this notion of Bildung and examines its possible practical application to SLTE in combination with reflective practice. Referring to Grondin’s notion that education is to raise true questions, I will argue for the importance of nurturing Bildung of preservice second language teachers and of second language teacher educators.     

Metaphorical sense-making: visual-narrative language portraits of South African students

This article reflects on a creative visual-narrative approach to understanding South African students’ lived experiences of languages. Data were collected in two interviews: the first entailing a biographical history and the drawing of a linguistic portrait on a simple body outline and the second a narrative interview utilising the portrait generated in the first as a basis for talking about language and identity. Framing the research process in this creative visual mode shifts the focus of narrative talk, simultaneously grounding it in affective, embodied experience, and enabling a reflexive position from which to analyse the taken-for-granted role of language in the minutiae of everyday life. The theoretical lenses of identity and subjectivity are invigorated through these metaphorical representations, and new creative possibilities are released for analysing the role of language in mediating shifting power dynamics in post-apartheid and postcolonial South African life.     

Sexual‐perception processes in acquaintance‐targeted sexual aggression

This study analyzes data from seven published studies to examine whether three performance‐based indices of men's misperception of women's sexual interest (MSI), derived from a self‐report questionnaire, are associated with sexual‐aggression history, rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. Almost 2000 undergraduate men judged the justifiability of a man's increasingly unwanted advances toward a woman on the Heterosocial Perception Survey‐Revised. Participants self‐reported any sexual‐aggression history, and some completed questionnaires assessing rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. A three‐parameter logistic function was fitted to participants’ justifiability ratings within a non‐linear mixed‐effects framework, which provided precise participant‐specific estimates of three sexual‐perception processes (baseline justifiability, bias, and sensitivity). Sexual‐aggression history and rape‐supportive attitudes predicted: (a) reduced sensitivity to women's affect; (b) more liberal biases, such that the woman's affect had to be more negative before justifiability ratings dropped substantially; and (c) greater baseline justifiability of continued advances after a positive response. Sexual‐aggression history and attitudes correlated more strongly with sensitivity than baseline justifiability; remaining variables showed the opposite pattern. This work underscores the role of sexual‐perception processes in sexual aggression and illustrates the derivation of performance‐based estimates of sexual‐perception processes from questionnaire responses.

     

编码方式与指拼特征在聋生手语词加工中的作用研究

本研究探讨了聋生在加工手语词过程中不同编码方式和指拼特征的影响。实验1采用指拼类手语词和手势类手语词考察了指拼有无对手语词编码方式的影响。实验2则采用不同特征的指拼类手语词,深入考察指拼位置、指拼形式对手语词编码方式的影响。结果表明,聋生较语音编码更擅长使用指拼编码加工手语词;指拼与手势的加工存在显著差异,指拼在聋生手语词加工中起到了促进作用;指拼位置与指拼形式共同作用于手语词的加工过程。     

Language-mediated object categorization: A longitudinal study with 16- to 20-month-old Serbian-speaking children

This study addressed the development of language-mediated categorization longitudinally, on a sample of Serbian-speaking children aged 16–20 months. Twenty four children were tested 3 consecutive times on: categorization of unknown objects with a shared label and a similar shape; and categorization of unknown objects with a shared label, but no visual similarity. The task was embedded in a game-like activity which included real object manipulation, categorization of novel objects labeled with made-up names, and socio-pragmatic cues provided by the experimenter. Our results indicate that an average child develops the ability to categorize novel objects with a similar shape and a shared label around 16 months of age, whereas for novel objects with a shared label, but no visual similarity, this ability is acquired sometime between 18 and 20 months of age. Our results partly confirm research findings obtained in other languages, thus emphasizing the need for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural validation of all language-related developmental studies.     

Application of Multi‐Criteria Analysis on Climate Adaptation Assessment in the Context of Least Developed Countries

The developing countries are suffering the most because of climatic variability and they have an enormous backlog in basic infrastructure to protect their cities. In addition, the resources and technical expertise are limited. Therefore, the adaptation measures to protect their cities are needed to be planned and prioritized carefully to reduce the vulnerability simultaneously considering the risk reduction, local constraints and development goals. A framework for prioritization of adaptation measures is lacking in the decision making in this context which could immensely assist in informed and structured decisions during the planning process of adaptation strategies in developing countries. This paper is exploring the potential of Multi‐Criteria Analysis as a methodology for climate adaptation assessment in order to prioritize the adaptation measures to be undertaken. Hence in this paper Adaptation assessment is conducted within the framework of Multi‐Criteria Analysis methodology which allows both normative judgement and technical expertise in the assessment process. Such a participatory integrated assessment of adaptation options is a new approach in flood management in least developed countries. The assessment framework has been applied and tested at the Eastern fringe of Dhaka city which is highly vulnerable to flooding. Based on the assessment and analysis, adaptive measures are prioritized to enable more effective action. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.